The present invention relates to a stone disintegrator apparatus for disintegrating a stone formed in an internal organ.
A typical conventional stone disintegrator apparatus comprises a charge circuit for charging a capacitor connected to discharge electrodes and a discharge circuit for discharging the capacitor to disintegrate the stone. In this stone disintegrator apparatus, charging must be stopped while the capacitor is discharged. For this reason, a switch is connected to one of the power source lines. Alternatively, a relay switch with a contact is arranged so as to switch between the charge and discharge circuits.
In such a conventional stone disintegrator apparatus, since one of the power source lines is opened during the discharge, the discharge current from the charged capacitor is supplied through the other power source line, thus increasing current consumption and endangering a patient. If the relay switch is used, a large current is supplied through the relay contact during the discharge, thus posing a problem of durability of the relay contact. It is desired that a stone in an internal organ is disintegrated at a high speed and in an efficient manner in order to reduce physical pains and danger to the patient. If charging/discharging is switched by the relay, a switching speed exceeding a predetermined value cannot be obtained because of the inertia of the drive portion of the relay. For this reason, the stone disintegration charge and discharge frequencies are limited. In order to solve this problem, a high-speed relay may be used. However, use of the high-speed relay leads to high costs.